From nearly 10 years ago...

The new-ball bowlers struggled to contain the effervescent West Indies opener, Devon Smith, although he offered plenty of evidence that he might be a special talent. Smith made scores of 75, 66 and 102 not out

interesting to see Bell, Prior and Tremlett all in there, players who played a major part in Ashes success almost a decade later

Big Dog wrote:

interesting to see Bell, Prior and Tremlett all in there, players who played a major part in Ashes success almost a decade later

I guess we'll have to check out the South African U19 side at the time to see how the rest of Englands Ashes team were going.

Henry wrote:And Nicky Peng. Adam Hollioake called him the best teenage batsman he'd after seen after he made 90 odd on debut against Surrey as a 17 year old. Averaged mid 20s for about five years and then faded without a trace. his family is filthy rich, apparently. Probably decided he was better off retiring from cricket to concentrate on being a toff.

Basil wrote:

Henry wrote:And Nicky Peng. Adam Hollioake called him the best teenage batsman he'd after seen after he made 90 odd on debut against Surrey as a 17 year old. Averaged mid 20s for about five years and then faded without a trace. his family is filthy rich, apparently. Probably decided he was better off retiring from cricket to concentrate on being a toff.

I saw Peng get a shed load of runs at New Road once - he looked a nailed on certainty to be a test player. perhaps he didn't want it enough.

Big Dog wrote:
I guess we'll have to check out the South African U19 side at the time to see how the rest of Englands Ashes team were going.

JT: I was playing regularly for Western Province as a 20-year-old and I got the chance from Bob Woolmer, who called me and asked if I wanted to come and play for Warwickshire. Neil Carter was here too, and it just felt right. There was always something about Warwickshire. Maybe it was Bob, or Allan Donald who played here when I was growing up, but I said to my dad that I wanted to go to Warwickshire and he said for me to go for it. With us being British that was always how I felt. I remember coming here on tour for South Africa under 15s and just walking straight through at Heathrow with my British passport as the rest were stuck at customs. So I always felt that way. I remember my dad telling me that they’d just selected the Ashes team, this would have been 1990-91, and I asked him how long they went away for. He told me it was four months, and I just remember thinking how crazy that was and saying to him, ‘Hey, I could go on an Ashes tour one day’, and my dad saying, ‘You’ll have to play for England first,’ and me saying, ‘Well, that’s okay…’